While working within the health care industry for several years, the inventor has become aware that the care of patients or confined individuals, even in the best facilities, is considerably better when the confined individuals are closely monitored by family members or other concerned individuals. These confined individuals tend to live longer and have a much better outlook on life. The fact that family members can easily be scattered throughout the world, where they cannot maintain close ties with loved-ones that are confined to care facilities, is a major problem. In these typical circumstances, individuals may go for long periods, and sometimes indefinitely, with no attention from anyone except those in the care facility. In many other instances, there are no living family members to monitor the care of the confined individual.
The inventor is also aware that, at present, there are no organizations or businesses that will make regularly scheduled non-medical visits to confined individuals and communicate with their family members. With the advent of the computers, video conferencing, camera technology, cellular telephones and the World Wide Web, instant communication and verification of time and date has been made so easy, it leaves only the need for someone to establish a reliable business that can accomplish these tasks with a guarantee of integrity and personal service.
A recent report posted by APE ON THE WEB, entitled Virtual Visitation: Can the “granny cam” improve the quality of nursing home care,? dated Dec. 5, 1999, stated that of all means of preventing nursing home abuse and neglect, perhaps none are as effective as family involvement with the care of their loved-ones. Frequent visitation and observation not only send a clear message to the facility that the quality of care they are providing is being noticed, but is also the best way to detect problems of abuse and neglect at the early stages before they become severe or life threatening. Visitation is a fundamental right of all nursing home residents, but logistically it can be difficult for family members or concerned friends to visit as often as they like to assure that their loved-ones are receiving the care they deserve. It is a necessity and a responsibility to assure that a nursing home resident receives quality care, and abuse and neglect are quickly recognized and dealt with. Technology has provided a simple and efficient solution to the logistical barriers of day-to-day oversight of nursing home care, referring to a small, unobtrusive camera mounted so as to observe the patient at all times and transmit the images over the Internet to the family members. APE ON THE WEB is excited about the concept of “virtual visitation” and will provide an exhaustive examination of the technical, medical and ethical implications of the use of the “granny cam.” It is clear to see the implications of using this device and how families of the patients may think of this as a great idea, while the care facilities would look at it as “big brother always watching” and are very much against the use of the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,885 issued to Gopinath, Bhaskarpillai et al. on Nov. 23, 1999, for an invention entitled, “Personalized Services, Including a Personal Presence, For Customers Based Upon Collected Personal Preferences,” and describes an arrangement to provide personalized services to customers, such as hotel guests or hospital patients, where the personalized services are based upon a personal preference profile collection for each individual. The services are displayed to the guest or patient via an in-room monitor. Moreover, the personal preferences are modified during the guest's or patient's present stay, and saved after the stay for later visits. In addition, a personal presence of the host personnel, such as persons at a front desk or an admission desk, may be integrated into the display on the in-room monitor. This patent relates to the personal convenience and comfort of the individual, but not to communication of a confined individual with family members through an intermediary utilizing a secure communications network.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,168,563 issued to Stephen J. Brown et al. on Jan. 2, 2001, for an invention entitled, “Remote Health Monitoring and Maintenance System,” and discloses a system and method that enables a health care provider to remotely monitor and manage a health condition of a patient. The system includes a health care provider apparatus operated by a health care provider and a remotely programmable patient apparatus that is operated by a patient. The health care provider develops a script program using the health care provider apparatus and then sends the script program to a remotely programmable patient apparatus through a communications network such as the World Wide Web. The script program is a computer-executable patient protocol that provides information to the patient about the patient's health condition and interactively monitors the patient health conditions by asking the patient questions and receiving answers to those questions. The answers to these health related questions are then forwarded as patient data from the remotely programmable patient apparatus to the health care provider apparatus through the communications network. The patient data may also include information supplied by a physiological monitoring device, such as a blood glucose monitor that is connected to the remotely programmable patient apparatus. When the patient data arrives at the health care provider apparatus, the patient data is processed for further management of the patient's health condition by the health care provider, such as forwarding another script program to the remotely programmable patient apparatus. This patent deals with the sensitive medical information and care of an individual within a facility, but again, not communication with family members through an intermediary on non-medical information.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,231 issued to Harry Evans , III, et al. on Mar. 24, 1998, for an invention entitled, “Funeral Home Display Monitor Apparatus,” and describes an apparatus in a funeral establishment for displaying information about a deceased person whose visitation is or was in the funeral establishment. This invention does not in any way describe anything regarding the visitation of live individuals in care facilities.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,205,716 issued to Diane P. Peltz et al. on Mar. 27, 2001, for an invention entitled, “Modular Video Conferencing Enclosure,” and discloses a secure, modular movable interactive two-way tele-collaborative video conferencing and imaging enclosure for conducting business or privileged medical, legal, or other confidential matters in private, being particularly equipped for remote monitoring of physiological attributes of one or more users by medical specialists and remote interaction between users and medical specialists. This patent also describes a device for conducting two-way interactive video conferencing from inside an enclosed structure, but does not suggest the use of an intermediary on non-medical information.
In accordance with the specified needs, Applicant submits a method for the establishment of a business that is devoted to those individuals confined in care facilities, or the like, and the communication to and from those who are concerned about them.